“Hi.”.
“Hello. How come here today?”, bhOndOO knew that Shami goes to the mess everyday along with Dharika for snacks.
“Dharika has gone for a trek and I was a bit bored of going to the mess.”.
bhOndOO felt very bad that he came early. He was thinking of asking Shami to give her his esteemed company, when Shami asked, “Done with your snacks?”.
“Umm… Yes…”.
“Okay then.”.
“Okay…”.

bhOndOO left disappointed. He walked as slowly towards the department as possible, thinking that if Shami finished early, he might be able to walk with her for some time. But that did not work. CSA is too near to Coffee Board for that!

bhOndOO entered the Computing Lab, unlocked the terminal, opened Orkut. The fortune was: You never hesitate to tackle the most difficult problems. bhOndOO felt enthusiastic to read his fortune! He thought for a while and grabbed his mobile, hit a few buttons, took a deep breath, and pressed the mobile against his left ear. After a few seconds:

“Hello?”.
“Hello, Dharika. This is bhOndOO.”.
“Hi bhOndOO. How are you?”.
“I am fine. How are you?”.
“I am also good. How come you called?”.
“I just called to check whether you have the Dragon’s book.”.
“Oh! Yes, I do. But I am currently out of campus. Is it okay if I give it to you day-after-tomorrow? I will be back tomorrow night.”.
“Yes, that is perfectly fine. Are you at home?”.
“No, I have come to Sawandurga for a trek.”.
“I see. Carry on then. Will see you later.”.
“Okay, bye.”.
“Bye.”.

bhOndOO took another deep breath, his eyes glistening. So, Dharika is not here for tomorrow’s snacks also. I can accompany Shami then.

The next day, bhOndOO came to the lab post-lunch. The very first thing he did was to login and open Orkut. The fortune was: Your present plans are going to succeed. bhOndOO was overjoyed. He wrote a few scraps, checked gmail, hotmail, yahoo, read a few blogs, and then opened a terminal and typed: pine -i.

bhOndOO almost got a blow to see a mail with the name Prof Krishnamurthy, his advisor. The mail read, We can meet tomorrow, Jun 08, around 16:00 in my office. bhOndOO started breathing again, Good that the meeting is tomorrow. Had it been today, my plans would have been in danger. But hold on! Today is Jun 08. Seems Sir has committed some mistake. bhOndOO looked at the time the mail was received: Jun 07, 2008 at 21:43.

bhOndOO suddenly realized that he had asked Sir for a day to meet for discussing a paper on Pointer Analysis and Sir made sure that he chose a date which clashed with bhOndOO’s sweet plans! bhOndOO did not know what to do. Shit!, he exclaimed. He tried to pacify himself with the thought: If the meeting starts on time, it will be done by 17:00 and I can still go with Shami.. But he also thought of a corner case, What if Shami goes at 16:30 or 16:45? He kept grinning for a while and went to the Litec Lab, where Shami was working.

“Hi.”.
“Hello.”.
Silence for two seconds.
“I was wondering if we can…”, bhOndOO realized something and then changed the statement to “Will you be having snacks in Coffee Board today?”.
Shami looked at him with a face which wasn’t fully puzzled and fully questioning. She didn’t say anything.
“No, I was wondering, if you are going there, we can go together…”.
“Okay.”, and Shami smiled.
bhOndOO smiled and turned back. Then realized the main purpose and turned back.
“Actually, I have a meeting with Sir at 16:00. I hope it will finish by 17:00. Shall we go then?”.
“Okay. Sure.”.

With pulse-rate above 90, bhOndOO returned to the Computing Lab and started reading the paper. With a section un-understood, at 16:00, he was in Prof Krishnamurthy’s office. bhOndOO saw his advisor talking to some visitor. Prof Krishnamurthy turned towards bhOndOO.

“Hi, can we meet after 10-15 min?”.
“Sure, Sir.”.
“I will call you on your mobile.”.
“Okay, Sir.”.

bhOndOO came to the lab and started reading the section that he had not understood properly. When he understood it, he realized that it was 16:30 and that Sir had not called yet. I will get late. It does not look good to ask her to wait for so long. bhOndOO thought of alternatives to finish the meeting by 17:00:

I will not go to Sir.

I will tell Sir that I have not finished the paper.

I will not explain the paper properly and he will ask me to come prepared better next time.

Before bhOndOO could decide on an option, he got a call from Sir. bhOndOO went to his office. They started discussing the paper. bhOndOO was speaking with a high speed. At 16:45, his flow was interrupted by the entry of a former student of Sir. The interruption persisted for another 20 min and consisted of discusions on children, image processing, and external PhD, none of which amused bhOndOO. Finally, his meeting was over at 17:29.

bhOndOO rushed to the Litec Lab to see Shami.

“Did you see Shami?”, bhOndOO asked Reddy.
“Yes, I saw her going towards Coffee Board…”, bhOndOO’s brain was in the process of sending a signal to his legs to run, but Reddy continued, “… with Gullu.”.

bhOndOO’s legs and brain were silent for a second. Then, he replied with hard-pressed lips, “Okay. Thanks.”.

Disappointed, bhOndOO returned to the Computing Lab. I should not have got late… I should have told Sir to meet tomorrow… Or I should have told her to wait for me… May be, I should not have called Dharika…. bhOndOO sighed, Or perhaps, I should not have fallen in love with Shami…

After a couple of minutes, the door opened and a smile appeared on bhOndOO’s face. Shami smiled back and asked, “Shall we go?”.

bhOndOO felt it a bit odd and rather embarassing, but he heard himself saying, “Ya, let’s go.”. He locked the terminal and came out. They started walking towards Coffee Board. bhOndOO, a bit sad, could not utter a single word. He continued looking down.

When they reached Coffee Board, Shami exclaimed, “Oh! It is closed.”.
bhOndOO looked up, “Oh! Correct, someone was saying today that it is closed. I didn’t remember. Anyway, let’s go to the T-board.”.

They started walking towards T-board, when bhOndOO suddenly realized something. He looked up at Shami and asked, “But didn’t you just come to Coffee Board with Gullu?”. He then realized that he asked a wrong question. He hesitated. Shami smiled and said, “No, we went to the Post Office. We both had some work there.”. bhOndOO realized that the post office closes at 17:30.

He suddenly started feeling light, took a deep breath, remembered his orkut fortune, looked up, and smiled at Shami.

Shami smiled back and said, “I am very hungry.”.
“Me too.”.

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Madhu (the punctual fame) was going to spoil Prashant’s life. Everyone in the Voices team had decided to gather at Coffee Board sharp at 20:00 and start for the night ceremony. bhOndOO had an additional responsibility of buying a wedding gift before coming to Coffee Board. Mails had resulted in several suggestions for the gift, but nothing was finalized (as usual) and it was left at the discretion of bhOndOO (not so usual).

Apart from many other problems that bhOndOO has (and creates), his mobile had started malfunctioning: when sending an SMS to someone, irrespective of whom the message is sent, it used to go to the last person who sent an SMS to bhOndOO. bhOndOO was blissed, since ignorance is a bliss and bhOndOO was totally ignorant of this malfunctioning.

It started raining at 18:00 and bhOndOO could not go out to buy any gift. His umbrella was torn by a sudden attack of a few birds after the birds read this post. He kept waiting for the rain to stop and the rain-fall reduced at 19:45. bhOndOO grabbed his bicycle and rode to Coffee Board. The rain managed to fool him and he got wet.

Note: Please read the next part carefully.
It was 20:00 and there was nobody else in Coffee Board. bhOndOO took out his mobile and started messaging junta.
“Where are you?”, meant for Sudhir, gone to BenJi (BenJi had SMSed bhOndOO last).
However, Sudhir also tried to communicate with bhOndOO.
“We are near Ramaiyya Hospital in Ajay Sir’s car, got a lift from him. He is also attending the marriage.”, from Sudhir.
Within a few seconds bhOndOO got a reply, “I am in Goa.”, from BenJi. bhOndOO could read the sender’s name, but was not at all interested in BenJi’s whereabouts.
“Why didn’t you take me?”, meant for Sudhir, gone to BenJi.
“I came here with my fiancée!”, from BenJi.
“I am coming directly to the hall with my wife.”, from Paresh.
bhOndOO was not at all interested in BenJi’s personal matters.
“So what should I do?”, meant for BenJi, gone to Paresh. Paresh was baffled!
“Shall we buy some gift on the way?”, from Sudhir.
“We are going to a beach right now.”, from BenJi.
“Shall I buy the gift? We are in a gift shop right now.”, from Paresh — trying to be calm.
“Okay, go ahead.”, meant for BenJi, gone to Paresh.
“Are you coming to Goa this weekend?”, from BenJi.
“No.”, meant for Sudhir, gone to BenJi.
“I may be back to Bangalore next weekend.”, from BenJi.
“We will probably buy coupons only.”, from Sudhir — clarifying his suggestion.
“That sounds great!”, meant for BenJi, gone to Sudhir.
“Today is Madhu’s wedding, right? What did you buy for her?”, from BenJi (from Goa).
“No. I will buy.”, meant for Sudhir, gone to BenJi.
“Okay, will talk to you later.”, from BenJi.
“Yes. Yes.”, meant for BenJi (for previous question), gone to BenJi (for recent message).
“See you there.”, from Sudhir.
“See you.”, from Paresh.
“Okay. See you.”, meant for Sudhir, gone to Paresh.
“Okay. See you.”, meant for Paresh, gone to Paresh (a second time).

At 20:30, Voices team greeted Madhu with three gifts: a wooden showpiece, a coupon, and a wet best-seller on time management.

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